Pre-Columbian Islamic-Americas contact theories
Pre-Columbian Islamic-Americas contact theories are theories which argue that medieval Muslim explorers, from Al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia, comprising modern Portugal and Spain), the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), China, or West Africa, may have reached the Americas, and possibly made contact with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, at some point before Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492. Proponents of these theories cite as evidence reports of expeditions and voyages conducted by navigators and adventurers who they argue reached the Americas, some time between the late 9th century and the 15th century. Andalusian theories Proponents of the earliest such contact theory cite Arabic sources written during the Caliphate of Córdoba which report sailors from Al-Andalus traveling into the Atlantic Ocean between the 9th and 14th centuries. Proponents argue that some of these sailors may have traveled as far as the Americas. Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad The earliest report cited by proponents is the Muruj adh-dhahab wa maadin aljawhar (The meadows of gold and quarries of jewels) of the Muslim historian and geographer Ali al-Masudi (871-957). Ali al-Masudi stated that during the rule of the Muslim Caliph of Al-Andalus, Abdullah Ibn Mohammad, a Muslim navigator Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad, from Cordoba, sailed from Delba (Palos) in 889, crossed the Atlantic, reached an unknown territory (Ard Majhoola) and returned with fabulous treasures.Tabish Khair (2006). Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing, p. 12. Signal Books. ISBN 1904955118.Ali al-Masudi (940). Muruj Adh-Dhahab (The Book of Golden Meadows), Vol. 1, p. 138. Ali al-Masudi, in The Book of Golden Meadows (947), wrote: In Ali al-Masudi's map of the world (between 896-956), there is a large area in the ocean, southwest of Africa, which he referred to as "Ard Majhoola" (Arabic for "the unknown territory"). Some have argued that "Ard Majhoola" may be a reference to the Americas.Agha Hakim, Al-Mirza, Riyaadh Al-Ulama (Arabic), Vol. 2 (p. 386) and Vol. 4 (p. 175). Ibn Farrukh According to historian Abu Bakr Ibn Umar Al-Gutiyya, another Muslim navigator, Ibn Farrukh, from Granada, sailed across the Atlantic in February 999, landed in Gando (Canary Islands) where he visited the guanche King Guanariga, and continued westward where he eventually saw and named two islands, Capraria and Pluitana. He arrived back in the Al-Andalus in May 999. Mugharrarin Muhammad Al-Idrisi's geographical text, Nuzhatul Mushtaq, is often cited by proponents of pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories. In this text, al-Idrisi wrote the following on the Atlantic Ocean: This translation by Dr Professor Muhammad Hamidullah is, however, questionable, since it tells us that, after having reached an area of "sticky and stinking waters", the Mugharrarin (also translated as "the adventurers") moved back and first reached an uninhabited island where they found "a huge quantity of sheep the meat of which was bitter and uneatable" and, then, "continued southward" and reached the above reported island where they were soon surrounded by barques and brought to "a village whose inhabitants were often fair-haired with long and flaxen hair and the women of a rare beauty". Among the villagers, one spoke Arabic and asked them where they came from. Then the king of the village ordered them to bring them back to the continent where they were surprised to be welcomed by Berbers.Idrisi, Nuzhatul Mushtaq - "La première géographie de l'Occident", comments by Henri Bresc and Annliese Nef, Paris, 1999 If this translation is correct where it says 'red skin', it raises questions as to who they were. Early descriptions of Native Americans rarely referred to them as red. For instance, "a 1702 history of New Sweden, which did not describe Indians as red but as differing "in their colour; in some places being black, and in others, brown or yellow," and "the earliest European explorers of the Southeast, the Spanish, and described Indians as "brown of skin".How Indians Got to be Red, Nancy Shoemaker, The American Historical Review, Vol. 102, No. 3. (Jun., 1997), pp. 625–644. This is both a possible explanation of 'blacks' seen by early European explorers and settlers and casts doubt about comments on 'red skin' referring to Native Americans. Archivo de la Casa de Medina Sidonia Luisa Isabel Alvarez de Toledo, 21st Duchess of Medina Sidonia claims that documents found during the many years of her research work in the Archivo de la Casa Medina SidoniaThe archives are now part of the Fundación Casa Medina Sidonia prove that some time before Columbus, Arab-Andalusian or Moroccan sailors traded with ports in Brazil, Guayana and Venezuela.She published her views in No fuimos nosotros (It wasn't us) and África versus América. Christopher Columbus When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the Americas in 1492, he was accompanied by several Muslim sailors (Andalusian Moors) who travelled with him to the New World,S. A. H. Ahsani (July 1984). "Muslims in Latin America: a survey", Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 5 (2), p. 454-463. as well as Andalusian Jews who attempted to speak Arabic to the Tainos in Cuba.María Rosa Menocal (2000). Culture in the Time of Tolerance: Al-Andalus as a Model for Our Time, Berkeley Electronic Press. It has been claimed that Columbus' son, Fernando Colón, also records that his father learned in Genoa from Muslim shipmen that visited the place that it was possible to reach India by sailing west of the European continent as an alternative to sailing eastwards. Chinese theories Mu-Lan-Pi "Mu-Lan-Pi" is a land described in two Chinese sources: Ling-wai tai-ta {1178) by Chou Ch'ii-fei and Chu-fan chihg (1225) by Chao Ju-kua. They are together referred to as the "Sung Document", based on accounts by Muslim explorers in Song Dynasty China. It states that Muslim sailors reached a region called "Mu-Lan-Pi", which has been claimed to be some part of the Americas. Chou Ch'ii-fei states the following: The assertion that "Mu-Lan-Pi" is a land to the west of the Muslim nations and that it takes the Muslim explorers a hundred days to reach and years to return, would have been too long for an east-west Mediterranean journey. If the document is authentic, and furthermore if the identification of "Mu-Lan-Pi" with America is correct, then it would be one of the earliest records of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic travel from the Eurasian continent to the Americas. This theory was proposed by the historian Hui-lin Li, and while Joseph Needham is also open to the possibility, he doubts that Arabic ships at the time would have been able to withstand a return journey over such a long distance across the Atlantic Ocean. Additional evidence related to agriculture presented by historian Hui-lin Li is described by historian Jaser Abu Safieh as follows: http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/gleanings-islamic-contribution-agriculture#ftn60 Zheng He Zheng He was born in 1371 of the Hui ethnic group and into the Muslim faith in the modern-day Yunnan Province of China,Evan Hadingham. Ancient Chinese Explorers. and was a sixth-generation descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a famous Khwarezmian governor from Bukhara in modern-day Uzbekistan. Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored a series of seven naval expeditions, and Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the fleet and armed forces that undertook these expeditions. A Chinese sailing map claimed to be dated 1763 was further claimed to be a copy of another map purportedly made in 1418 by Zheng He. The map has detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians. According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, after he read the book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies, he realized the significant potential value of the map. The map has been tested to verify the age of its paper, but not the ink. Although the map has been shown to date from a period that could cover 1763, the question remains as to whether it is an accurate copy of an earlier 1418 map, a copy of a contemporary 18th-century European map, or a modern forgery drawn on ancient paper. A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based orientation. Also mentioned is the depiction of the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. Fiona Petchey, head of the testing unit at Waikato University, had carbon-dated the map, and the carbon dating indicated with an 80% probability a date for the paper of the map between either 1640-1690 or 1730-1810.Michel Field. Writer trashes origins of Maori. The 1421 hypothesis has been dismissed by Sinologists and other professional historians. Mali Empire An account drawn from contemporary reports regarding the Mali Empire haw been cited by proponents of African contact theories to suggest that expeditions from this West African empire may have crossed the Atlantic to reach the Americas. In his book Massaalik al-absaar fi mamaalik al-amsaar (The pathway of sight in the provinces of the kingdoms), the historian Chihab ad-Dine Abu Abbas Ahmad bin Fadhl al-Umari (1300-1384) describes an expedition into the Atlantic.Al-Asfahani, Ar-Raghib, Adharea Ila Makarim Ash-Shia, Vol. 16, p. 343. He relates a story obtained from the Mamluk governor of Cairo, Ibn Amir Hajib. While Mansa Musa was visiting Cairo as part of his pilgramate to Mecca, Ibn Amir Hajib asked how he had succeeded to the throne, and this is what Ibn Amir Hajib reported he was told: A claim has been made that fleet landed in Brazil in around 1312, in the place now called Recife and that Pernambuco is allegedly an aberration of the Mande name for the rich gold fields of the Mali Empire.BBC's The Story of Africa: The Kingdoms of Mali and SonghayAfrica's 'greatest explorer' - by Joan Baxter (2000) Nautical feasibility In 1969, Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer crossed the Atlantic ocean from the North African port of Safi, arriving in Barbados, West Indies. His craft was made by local Africans of indigenous papyrus. For his journey he relied on the southbound Canary Current off the coast of the Iberian peninsula and the western coast of Africa, and the Northeast Tradewinds that blow westward towards the Caribbean region. The voyage has been suggested to indicate that it was technically possible to cross the Atlantic in medieval western Africa. Pg. 34 See also *Geography and cartography in medieval Islam *Islamic Agricultural Revolution *Islamic Golden Age *Models of migration to the New World *Piri Reis map *Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact *Timeline of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Notes References *Youssef Mroueh, Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas. *Amir Nashid Ali Muhammad, Muslims in America - Seven Centuries of History 1312-2000, ISBN 0-915957-75-2. *Salih Yucel, [http://www.fountainmagazine.com/article.php?ARTICLEID=823 Islam and Muslims in America before Columbus]. *Pre Columbus & Pre Slavery Years Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Category:Islam in the United States Category:Pseudohistory